A Whisper of White
by Dearlady2002
Summary: A mysterious, young, silvery-white haired woman wanders the land, her only company the horse she rides and the few people who cross her path... Why does she choose a lone existence? What is the secret that separates her from others?
1. Chapter 1

Alright guys, go easy on me. This is sort of a "testing of the waters" to see either how tremendously well this story goes over, or how horridly it will flop. Please read and review, especially if you're normally one of my Labyfic readers- I'd like to see what you guys think of it too! When she's speaking in another language, it's Draconic. I thought I'd be nice and slip in the translations for you…

Andrea

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Chapter One

The woman signaled her horse to a stop with a soft noise; a gentle hissing screech of sorts, so quiet that unless someone were carefully listening, they may have mistaken it for a baby owl's first cry. If they heard it at all. Signals passed between the woman and her mount quickly and quietly, they needed no harsh voice commands or sharp pulls of the reins to understand each other. The few signals they did use were unnecessary, they understood each other with what some would say was a sixth sense. 

The large white war horse paused at the top of the grassy knoll, and patiently waited as she surveyed the lush green lowlands. Of all the places she'd been, this was the only area whose grass seemed to flow over the hills and valleys of the terrain like water, it moved in waves. Small wildflowers dotted the landscape, varieties that she knew Ja'er loved to graze on- she'd let him once they stopped. His granddame had loved them, as had his great grandsire whom she'd both ridden. She'd been here before, many times before over many years. The time before last was when she'd accidentally frozen half of the remaining members of a wagon party she'd been hired to protect. She was young, though, and learning her abilities and limitations. The last time she had been here, though, that was right before… 

Ja'er stomped a large, feathered foot and flipped his mane. She patted his neck with affection. Ja'er always knew how she felt. 

"Shafaer, ervorel aussir thurirl." _On, my beautiful white friend._

Melianthe urged Ja'er on, down the hill. Another hour's hard ride or so over these grassy hills and there was a small village in the valley. It was doubtful that the village had changed much in the nearly three years since she'd been there. The shoddy, faded, inn would be the same, though it was probably now run by the son of the owner. Raoul had been old the last time she'd visited, and she was sure he would have passed it on to one younger by now. 

Ja'er paused again at the bottom of the hill and the woman slid off his back easily. "Ready to run, my steed?" she whispered excitedly. This would be their last time for a few weeks at least; the town would soon be too close to risk such reckless yet blissfully carefree behavior. 

Ja'er snickered, eager to be loosed. She slid the bridle over his head, and set it on the ground at her feet. The supplies he carried came next, followed by the saddle and saddle blanket. He then waited patiently for her to place her shield on the ground, undo her belt and remove her longsword and dagger, carefully remove her studded leather amour, padded garments beneath, then finally her shirt and undergarments. Lastly, she pulled a fire-opal pendant strung on a delicate gold chain over her head, and set it on top of the pile. One remaining piece of leather striping, loosely knotted, still hung around her neck. This was threaded through a silver, mother-of-pearl looking oval pendant. This, however, she did not remove. Fully naked, she turned to Ja'er. 

"Thrae svern, edar vhir," _air above, earth below, _she chanted, and Ja'er's body tensed, one foreleg raised slightly, "on your mark, get set, and GO!" she finished. Ja'er took off like a white arrow, racing down the valley. Not a split second behind him, Melianthe took a long stride and jumped, felt her body change, took another long stride then leapt into the air, pushing off with her hind legs as her large, silver wings unfurled, then gained altitude as her wings made the first, powerful downsweep. 

She soared upward, leveling out her ascent when she was a couple hundred feet in the air. Below and slightly ahead of her, Ja'er raced on, whinnying his triumph over her. 

Melianthe beat her wings harder, caught up to the white horse, then sailed past him as he abruptly changed direction and ran back the direction he'd come. 

__

Foiled! 

She screamed her challenge at him, her silvery voice filling the air, and turned to go track him down. He was quite a ways before her, but she swooped low, flapped her wings furiously, and finally caught up to him. They ran and flew like this, Ja'er below, Melianthe above, for a few minutes. Neither gained nor lost any ground. Finally, Ja'er suddenly stopped running and looked up at her, whinnying, just as she flew overhead, the downdrafts she created sending his mane flying. 

S_till a draw. _

She'd raced like this for years, with Ja'er, his granddame before that, his great grandsire before that… Ja'er's great grandsire had outflown her at a considerably early age, only three years old. As she had grown, learned to fly better and gained control of her wing muscles, he'd also grown stronger and faster. They'd raced simultaneously like this for years during their adventures, until the gray age had started to overtake him. His grandmother had been in her prime when she had finally matched Melianthe in flight. Not long after that she'd been cut down, in the best years of her life, by a group of horrid kobold wraiths. Melianthe had been crushed, afraid her long line of beloved horses had finally come to an end. 

But nay, one small colt from that noble line still lived in a stable kingdoms away… 

She'd had to fly for weeks, stopping only long enough at streams to drink and find sustenance, in order to get to the kingdom of her friend. Similar to her in looks, though not in lineage, he and his family before him had been raising horses for centuries. He'd given her her first horse, Ja'er's great grandsire, Lathien, which had actually been his personal horse. He'd kept Lathien's son, and continued breeding the line, exclusively for his own use, and her own. 

She'd stayed in that little town of her friend's kingdom long enough to raise the newly born colt to adulthood, then had started adventuring again. Ja'er, named after her friend, had been with her ever since. 

She let loose one more saucy challenge, then turned on a wingtip. Backwinging lightly, she landed a few feet away from Ja'er. He trotted over to her and bumped his head against her plated chest. _Good run_, he seemed to say. 

_Axun, _she agreed. _Yes._

He nickered and walked away from her, his head down as he nibbled lightly on the small flowered vegetation around him. She uttered a short, low grunt, and leapt skyward again. She would fly for a few hours while he foraged contentedly. With her sharp eyesight, she could fly for miles and see anyone approaching Ja'er or their combined pile of goods. 

Yes, this would be the last time for a few weeks that they would be able to run and fly and race so freely. Tomorrow they had to ride into the village, and face what would undoubtedly lie before her. 

She angled her wings and soared upward at a dizzying speed. Ah, but she would worry about that later. For now, it felt good to be a dragon!

*****


	2. Chapter 2

This chapter may be changed a little bit, small stuff only, but I felt I finally had something worth posting, and was growing impatient. Again, it's working up towards some better stuff, so bear with me. Please read and review. 

Thanks, 

Andrea

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Chapter Two

The sun slowly sank into the horizon as Melianthe flew on for a few more hours, keeping one eye on Ja'er and their belongings on the ground as she flew. Not, however, that it was their pile of goods she worried about during such flights. Ja'er, with his infinite wisdom and companionship, was much more valuable to her than anything she owned sitting down there on the ground. Or anything secreted away in her lair, for that matter. Of all the jewels, coins, various sculptures and tapestries, and expensive magical artifacts she had amassed over the years, she'd trade them all in a hummingbird's heartbeat if Ja'er were ever in danger. 

His granddame, Havanthe, had done it for Melianthe- willingly laid down her life when the wraiths had attacked them. Her mind flashed back to that horrible day; Havanthe, raked with claw marks from belly to neck, lay bleeding in her draconic arms as she tried to fly her to safety. Melianthe shouldn't have been able to carry her; she was still too young to be that strong, but she'd somehow managed to summon the phenomenal strength needed. Still, she'd been too late to save Havanthe.. 

Melianthe shook her head as a tear formed at the corner of her eye, immediately freezing and solidifying into a perfect white diamond as it fell away. Melianthe would gladly repay that debt, if it ever came down to it, to honor her beloved Havanthe. If it happened now, though, she would sacrifice _everything_… 

She closed her eyes and took one last windswept dive to clear her head. Leveling out as she neared where Ja'er was grazing, she backwinged to lightly land near their pile of combined supplies. She changed back to her assumed form, the human paladin, and scratched behind Ja'er's ears. 

"Did you enjoy your graze?" she asked. He neighed softly and pushed his nose into her other hand. She nodded. "My flight was wonderful.. I flew just high enough to where you can see your breath." She scratched his ear one last time then patted his neck. "Well, I hope it was enough to keep us both satisfied for a few weeks. We've got to ride into the village tomorrow," _and face what will undoubtedly lie before me, _she thought, but didn't voice.

She stole a glance at the horizon- the sun was gone and the sky was melting into shades of violet now- and strode over to their pile of equipment, picked up her underclothes and dug through a bag tied to Ja'er's saddle. From it, she removed a pair of loose-fitting tan pants and quickly dressed. Dragons were not shy about their appearance, but for some unexplainable reason, humans, elves, and many other beings were extremely inhibited about their natural form. It would not be wise to be seen as bare as the scales on her draconic chest, should someone happen across them tonight. 

She picked up both ends of the leather cord that, though still threaded through her pendant, now hung loosely on her neck and re-knotted them. The silvery pendant that appeared to be made of mother-of-pearl lay stationary on her chest. Even if the leather strips had come unthreaded and fell to the ground during her flight, the pendant would not have fallen off. 

She'd learned as a wyrmling, when she had first attempted to don a humanoid form, that one scale on her chest would never fully change. It would always start to change shape and shrink, but went no further. As a dragon, this was not a setback, but since she wanted to explore the world as a human and travel among them, this quickly posed a problem. 

It had taken her almost eleven years to find a solution. She had tried everything; having older, more powerful silver dragons attempt to use any magical items they had in their horde to shrink it, remove it, replace it, she had asked wizards to try potions on it and as a result once spent an uncomfortable night stuck in the form of a frog. She had even tried to claw it off herself, but it was all to no avail. 

Eventually, it came to her: the solution wasn't to somehow get rid of the offending scale, but to simply work it into her guise. In the end, she'd asked an older dragon to carefully bore a hole through the top of the scale with a claw tip, then she'd simply strung the leather cording through it. She'd taught herself a quick-release type of knot, so that if she had to change from her human form to her dragon form in a hurry, she would not break the leather or strangle herself. The knot simply undid itself. When she changed back, she simply had to retie the knot. 

She dug around in another saddlebag and pulled out a bedroll. She was a silver dragon, and in that form, loved colder weather, but in human guise, this is apparently what one did. They seemed to be a bit more vulnerable to weather than other animals. Maybe it was their lack of fur or scales…

She curled up on one side of the material and pulled the other half over her body. On colder nights, the saddle blanket could be employed as well, but tonight anyways, it was not needed. While most travelers seemed to prefer sleeping with their light armor kept on, she did not. If, by some slim chance, both her and Ja'er did not sense someone approaching them, and she needed to fight, she would simply change to her natural dragon form. Doing so would ruin any clothing she was wearing, but at least she would only be out a pair of pants and some undergarments. 

"Ssifisv, eraussir thurirl," rest, my white friend, she as she called Ja'er to her. "We'll need the sleep." 

Ja'er kneeled a foot or two away from her, and placed his chin on her hip. He nickered once, quietly, and Melianthe listened to his breathing slow as he fell asleep. Finally, she closed her eyes, and let sleep take her.

*****

Melianthe woke before dawn the next morning. Ja'er was on the ground a few feet away, rolling on his back., feet splayed in the air, scratching his back. He stood up, shook his head, and whinnied. _About time_, he seemed to say. 

She stood up and stretched in the pre-dawn darkness, laughing at his antics. "Come here, horsey-face." Ja'er sauntered over and bumped his head against her. She scratched behind his ears for a bit, then turned and picked up the saddle blanket. She quickly saddled him, then had to admonish him.

"Ja'er, don't you _dare_ puff up your belly when I'm trying to saddle you!" Ja'er exhaled the breath he'd been holding, and whinnied again, seemingly laughing. "You're horrible, you know that? You got me fooled once that way- and do you remember what happened? I fell off!" Ja'er shook his head, tossing his mane. "I know you were playing, but I'm on to you _now_…" She pulled the straps a bit tighter just in case. 

She quickly looped the saddlebags back on, then slung her leather armor over the back of the saddle, and threw her bedroll over it to conceal it. She did not want to stride into town armed to the teeth, but she had no were else to put it and wanted it with her. She picked up the last saddlebag and opened it. Pulling a long, white hooded cloak out, she quickly put it on and jumped up into the saddle.   
  
She looked to the horizon- the sun was just starting to come up. "Are we ready?" she asked Ja'er, her voice suddenly serious. He looked towards the sun, and dipped his head once. She pulled her hood up over her head, obscuring her face, and urged him on. 

"Shafaer, ervorel aussir thurirl." 

Ja'er turned, and started up over the last hill of the plains. At the crest, Melianthe saw the small city nestled in the valley below, and the rocky, well-worn trail that led to the city gates. Turning their backs on the lush grasses that moved in waves, they started down the trail.

*****


End file.
